Mostly battle reports of games of Warhammer 40k, and some hobby and tactics stuff as well.

Mar 11, 2013

Daemons - Heavy Support

Final section of my first thoughts about the new book then... Keep in mind that the corresponding Greater Daemon makes Daemon Princes into Heavy Support as well... which opens up some nice builds...

Soul Grinders

This is hands down the best unit in this book. I can't believe how it's so cheap, especially compared to the Defiler... So what do you get for 135-150 points (depending on which God you chose)? AV13 13 11, Daemon, 4HP and a Skyfire autocannon with three shots at BS3 plus the effects of your chosen God. Of course you chose Nurgle here, because Shrouded is simply awesome. The others doesn't really make much sense in most cases.

Then you of course want Phlegm. A 36" Battlecannon. And you're still cheaper than a Defiler, with more uses than a Defiler while being more resilient than a Defiler... I don't get it.

But anyhow, this of course lends itself to taking three of them and hiding them behind a Aegis Defence Line for 2+ cover. I'm sure everyone and their grandmother have thought about this by now. And most of those are likely to have thought about adding the Tzeentch Herald(s) for Prescience as well. Very, very potent combo, especially since you can also have the Comms Relay to make sure you get the rest of the army turn 2...

So anyway, the other options are a S6 AP4 Torrent Flamer, and a S10 AP1 24" shot as well as an additional attack (which gives you the option to use Master-Crafted as well, but then you'll become AP3 instead of AP2). The other viable build I see is the extra attack, Khorne and the flamer. You get a very though walker which will deal some damage while coming in and then have 7 attacks on the charge. Only WS3 though. And really, you have so much stuff to assault with anyway, do you actually want another close combat unit?

The S10 AP1 shot is the one I find least useful... because you can only have one of the ranged attacks (along with the standard Harvester cannon). So it's 25 points for ONE shot at BS3. Not really worth it, when you have the S8 Large Blast Ordnance there...

In either case, amazing fire support unit.

Skull Cannon of Khorne

No options for this one, so lets see what it can do. The army is lacking grenades obviously, so instead we get this cannon. It's S8 AP5 Large Blast, but more importantly each unit that is hit makes it so that charging units will not suffer penalties to initiative when charging through terrain. So obviously you want this to support your charge at that defensible position. And obviously your opponent will want to kill it before it can do that. I see two options to stop it from dying before it can shoot; you Deep Strike it turn 2 to support the fast units that have moved up the board and are in charge range gets the support, or you use a Comms Relay and try to keep it off the board until turn 3 when all of your other Deep Striking units are allowed to charge. The first option is more reliable, as it's hard to fail that first reserve roll even with a re-roll. So that means... you use it to support Bloodcrushers, Flesh Hounds, Plague Drones I suppose. Ie, I don't see it being very effective unless you have fast units.Burning Chariot of Tzeentch

Okay, at the time writing this there is no FAQ out. Which means this unit is totally unusable. But I'm going to assume that it'll be FAQ:d to be able to move and shoot for the sake of discussion.So, this is a Fast Skimmer Chariot with two different shooting attacks (which you can use one of per turn, as the rider has the attacks and he's Infantry). One is a Torrent Flamer S5 AP3 - so with this one you're basically a more fragile, weaker version of the Heldrake. The other attack is S9 AP2 with D3 shots (at BS4). Both of these also have the Warpflame rule (possible to give Feel no Pain to the target), AND the Hammer of Wrath attacks has it as well. They can also take an upgrade that gives enemies within 6" a -1Ld that doesn't stack.

The Exalted Flamer can also take Rewards, which might be a good idea. Since if you get locked in combat all attacks go against him, and if you lose him you loose your shooting. So a Greater Reward and hope for 3+ armour I'd say (on a Chariot it becomes a 2+). He also have 3 attacks actually, so if you get something bad you can always take the +1S AP2 sword, not a terrible option as a backup at least.

So, the problem with this thing is, like all things Tzeentch in my oppinion, the Warpflame rule. It makes me really reluctant to want to use it against Marines. Here we at least have AP3 and 2 though, so you'll at least do some damage before possibly granting boosts. So it's probably worth it.

If they fix it in the FAQ that is.

Seeker Cavalcade

The last option is the Slaanesh Cavalcade. 1-3 Chariots, either Seeker Chariots or Exalted Seeker Chariots in any combination. They're the same, except one has twice as many HP's for almost twice the price. The Exalted ones do seem tempting, as Seeker Chariots do number of HP left number of D6 impact hits... and 4D6 S4 Rending sounds like a lot... And with 4HP you're more likely to actually make a charge, right? Well... not really. You're still a AV11 Open Topped Vehicle. You're quite likely to explode anyway, no matter how many HP you have...
So I think go cheap. You're not that likely to be able to charge anyway, but if you do draw some fire away from the rest of your army, all the better for you. You didn't spend much on them anyway. And if you DO get to charge... 2D6 S4 Rending is quite decent as well!

So the question is... do you have slots for them in your army? They are competing with Daemon Princes and Soul Grinders after all... both of which works better if you have more than one... But if you for all out speed, you might want to consider these things. They also make excellent moving cover for as long as they don't explode... combine with Nurgle stuff that are Shrouded?

Well, that's my first thoughts of the book at least. Let the play testing commence for real!